Recap – Agents of HYDRA S04E17 – Slippery Soapy SHIELD Edition

So a bit of positive news, it seems Agents of SHIELD is looking more likely to be renewed. Or at least one USA Today Article suggests it should be. There is less to the article than I’d hoped but hey, that’s kind of a plus. I really feel like there is room for Agents AND the new Inhumans show. Frankly, I’m way less interested in The Inhumans show. I’ll still watch but it just interests me less.

Anyway, I kind of wonder how long this Framework plot line is going to last. I feel like the What If Scenario we have going on is going to drag a bit if the plan is to run for the remaining 8 episodes. Not to mention it means no Yo-yo at all except maybe in the end when they get free and it kind of abandons the plot line with The Superior being turned into a pseudo LMD and wanting to kill Coulson. Also it leaves the plot with Nadir cocooning up in the ocean going nowhere.

Basically, there’s too many loose ends for 8 episodes of “How do we escape The Matrix?”

On a side note before getting into spoilers, there has been a lot of pretty heavy underlying commentary these last few episodes on the state of the world. Effectively using Hydra as a metaphor for the whole Alt-right mess. Like how Simmons comments that “They are all Nazis” last episode and Fitz this episode uses the phrase “Make Society Great Again.”

Anyway, onto the Spoiler Section…

I’m probably jumping to too much worry with the plot pacing, we’re still kind of in the middle of reintroducing everyone. We get Mack and Mace back as well as Radcliffe and Agnes. Unfortunately my little theory on using Agnes as a body double for AIDA was shot down, literally. What a waste of a character, she really never accomplished a whole lot. It also means Radcliffe is very likely dead in the end, again. There isn’t any point of keeping him alive in the Framework Moriarty style if he doesn’t have Agnes, he’ll just be alone and he’s already bitching about how his paradise is too perfect.

The majority of the episode was spent developing Mack and the Fitzsimmons relationship under this new dynamic. Simmons is convinced that Fitz will turn once he finds her, but it’s shown through several means that he is not the same person, he doesn’t seem to care or recognize Simmons at all then later murders Agnes to win the favor of AIDA, aka Madam Hydra. I could see that as being a ruse though to trick AIDA. Fitz is pretty smart and as awful as it is, I could see him justifying killing Agnes in the Framework since: the Framework isn’t real; Radcliffe has been a deceitful asshole; he is “freeing” her from a life trapped in the fake world.

Simmons is pretty broken up by the fact that her world view in general is completely turned on it’s side. She’s not handling things nearly as well as Daisy, which is saying a lot considering Daisy was sucker by May into admitting her SHIELD status and was taken prisoner and tortured by Hydra. One side prediction, I feel like eventually Daisy will get her powers again, and since The Framework isn’t real, she’ll unleash them in a massively destructive way, probably obliterating The Triskellion.

Poor Mack though. He’s going to end up the worst off at the end of this whole mess. His little world has given him back his Hope, his daughter. And they are so great together, and of course, in the end, it isn’t real. May also abducts him and his daughter as a ruse to trap Daisy.

May is a real wild card here. I really wonder, more so than Fitz after being exposed to Simmons, if May doesn’t know the truth but it playing her part waiting to strike. She has been in the world the longest of course, though she’s good at adapting. I was also really disappointed we didn’t get a May vs Daisy fight. Considering how far Daisy has come being trained by Ward and May and in general become an exceptional field agent, I could see Daisy taking May in a fight, even without her powers.

Mace also makes an appearance as The Patriot. It’s not clear if he actually has Inhuman powers in this world or if he is still juicing, though we’ll find out next episode since the previews suggest some sort of Inhuman powers suppression drug. Something that obviously won’t do a thing against some super soldier serum.

Coulson also seems to be remembering more, and apparently his flashes of the truth have turned him into a conspiracy nut in The Framework, who lives alone and makes his own soap.

The Future

So I have a bit of a new prediction of how they will ultimately deal with everything. AIDA mentions going to the other world as if the other world are the invaders. What if, they build a Framework within the Framework and trick AIDA into thinking she’s won.

On a total last side note, I had a brief epiphany that it would be totally awesome if after “saving” the Framework world from Hydra, David Hasselhoff made a cameo as Nick Fury to thank our Agents for their good work.